Carlisle teenage rapist took away girls' confidence

A teenager who raped two schoolgirls has been sentenced to three years in a youth detention centre.

He attacked a 14-year-old in 2017 and a 15-year-old in 2019, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

He had denied rape charges relating to each girl, and one attempted rape charge over the second incident.

However, he was found guilty on all counts after a youth court trial and lost a crown court appeal against his conviction.

The boy, who cannot be named because of his age, was 14 in autumn 2017 when consensual kissing with his first victim in a Carlisle park escalated into unwanted sexual activity as she told him "no".

The court heard she was "paralysed by fear" and in a victim impact statement she later said her mental health had hit "rock bottom", describing her attacker as "dangerous".

In June 2019, the boy, who had by then turned 15, became "forceful and rough" in the bedroom of a Carlisle house and persisted against the second girl's wishes.

"I kept saying 'no'," the girl later told police, who managed to alert a friend with a string of text emojis previously chosen by them to signal being in trouble.

She made text disclosures to the charity Shout later that day.

In her impact statement, she said he had "stripped" her of "self-worth and self-confidence".

"He violated me in the worst way and for that I hate him," she said.

Defending the boy, Anthony Parkinson told the court "rehabilitation in this case is a very real prospect".

But Judge Nicholas Barker told the defendant he had done "bad things" with detention the only realistic sentence given the severity of his crimes.

The boy must also sign the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.

Speaking after the sentencing, Det Con Michael Gilsenan said the attacks had a "huge impact" on the lives of the two girls.

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